The Farmer's Market, Delivered: Eating Local with Peapod

Tweet

Pin It

I've long been a fan of Peapod for grocery delivery when life gets crazy. The service allows you to order all of your normal groceries at normal grocery store prices and have them delivered straight to your front door, so that a busy schedule doesn't mean you have to turn to fast food and eating out every night!

Peapod has recently debuted something incredible - the Peapod Local Farm Box! While Peapod brought the grocery store to you (and still does), the Peapod Local Farm Box brings the farmer's market home to you! 

The Peapod Local Farm Box is available in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest. It includes an assortment of local farm-fresh produce that changes weekly to feature whatever is seasonal and fresh! That means you get the freshest, most nutrient-rich produce delivered straight to you every week, and you have built-in variety of vegetables and nutrients.                                                                                                 

Read More...

Back to College: Tips from a Grad!

Tweet

Pin It

I'm over a year out of school and as an experienced, arguably wise college grad, I have some great tips and tricks from my college years for having a great start to the year!

For me, every school year comes with a lot of excitement. It's a new beginning, full of new classes, new professors, and new potential friends! There's so much to learn, so much to do, and so much to experience.

The key to a great start is great preparation. I'm sure you guys can all provide the requisite excitement and positive outlook on the new beginning, so I'll focus on my tips for some easily overlooked fundamentals that you'll want to include on your packing list!

Read on for advice for what you'll want to make sure you don't accidentally leave off of your back to college packing list this fall!

Read More...

Wake Up Call: Back to School Edition!

Tweet

Pin It

Did anyone else recently look at their calendar and do a double-take? How is it already the last week of August? It felt like summer just started!

But, for better or for worse, summer is drawing to a close and that means that fall is right around the bend! In general, seasonal changes bring around routine and life changes. Fall is a big one for that, because many of us are heading back to school!

I'm done with school (WHOOOOOOT!) but that doesn't mean that I don't have some pretty big changes coming up. Those of you who have been reading my blog or following me on Instagram for a while now know that I'm a passionate children's author. 

I'm letting that passion take me in a new, exciting direction this fall. I'm starting a new office job as a staff writer for a children's television show!

As you can tell, I'm excited. But this new exciting career move also means that I have the same routine change-up as everyone who's heading back to school!

My little sister, who's proudly entering the fifth grade this fall, has already started her back-to-school prep and I have started my new job prep, as of this weekend, as well! Read on for what has been on my prep-for-fall shopping list so far!

Read More...

Healthy Habits with Farmivore

Tweet

Pin It

I love smoothies! They're delicious, packed with healthy fruits (and potentially veggies), convenient if you need a snack or light meal on the go, great at any time of the day, easy to digest, and a perfect way to cool off on a hot day or hydrate on a day where you've been less diligent with water consumption than ideal. 

I love adding spinach to a fruity, banana-based smoothie for a delicious, easy way to get in my daily greens!

Smoothies can also be a component of one of my favorite new 'trendy' foods:

Smoothie bowls! I love them, especially acai and pitaya bowls. I had my first bowl in Hawaii and while the ones I make at home (see above) are nowhere near as amazing as those were, they're still delicious! I'm working on it.

One of the biggest challenges I face in smoothie making is the same as I do in cooking and baking in general. As a single girl, it can be hard to buy produce in amounts that you'll use before they go off if you want a lot of variety. I don't like wasting food, so I'm more likely to sacrifice variety in order to buy just what I can use, than to buy a big range of fruits and veggies at once so that i can experiment with smoothie flavors. 

Fortunately, I don't have to decide anymore! I recently discovered Farmivore, a delivery service that provides you with fresh smoothie ingredients straight to your front door in portions that are practical!

Read More...

Recipe: Perfect Pumpkin Pie

Tweet

Pin It

Back to school season always feels like the start of fall to me. Sometimes the weather keeps it pretty summery for a while after all the kids are back at their desks, but either way fall is not far away!

Apple picking, the return of long pants and long-sleeved T-shirts, chilly evenings that require coats, and the coming of the holidays all mark fall. So does fall baking! 

Pumpkin pie is not only a Thanksgiving favorite, but also a classic fall dessert. Make a pie now to perfect your skills and get back in the swing of things before the holidays sneak up on you!

Here's the recipe that I swear by for a perfect pumpkin pie!

Read More...

7 Reasons to Eat More Avocado!

Tweet

Pin It

When I was younger, I hated avocado. The taste, the texture, everything. But avocado is delicious! 

My days of loathing the egg-shaped fruit are long gone! It does still feel odd to consider it a fruit, however - nutritionally it seems like more of a nut or something like that to me.

Either way, delicious! Here are seven reasons why you should give avocado a second chance. It's amazing how good for you these tasty little powerhouses are!

Read More...

Healthy Snacking for Back-to-School With goodnessknows

Tweet

Pin It

Back to school is right around the bend and for a lot of families, that means that it's time to start thinking about healthy, delicious, and convenient lunches and snacks to keep little (and big!) students' minds ready to learn a lot!

I personally love granola bars and was excited to try the new goodnessknows Snack Squares in all three delicious flavors: Cranberry, Almond Dark Chocolate; Apple, Almond & Peanut, Dark Chocolate, and Peach & Cherry, Almond, Dark Chocolate.

Read More...

Recipe: Flaky Lemon Bars

Tweet

Pin It

Just in time for back-to-school, here's a yummy lunchbox-friendly treat that adults will enjoy every bit as much as adults!

While 'flaky' isn't a desirable trait in people, it's the perfect trait in a dessert crust. This crust is not only super easy to make, but also perfectly flaky! 

It pairs well with the intensely lemony, but still sweet, filling and th strong lemon flavor makes a single bar a completely satisfying dessert. 

I used a disposable aluminum foil pan to make cleanup quicker and easier, but this bakes just as well in a normal pan. Here is the recipe!

Read More...

5 Ways to Sneak Veggies into a Picky Eater's Diet

Tweet

Pin It

Do you have a picky eater in your household? Or maybe you're the picky eater?

Many of us don't get the recommended five servings a day of fruits and vegetables. Picky eaters often get even less. Since fruits and vegetables provide us with a wide variety of important nutrients, that's not good!

Especially with back to school around the bend, it's time to spiffy up routine and make sure that poor nutrition isn't holding us back from being our best - young and old alike!

With these tried and true tips, you'll have even the pickiest eater happily hitting their fruit and veggie serving goals every day!

Read More...

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Tweet

Pin It

Going gluten-free? Simply out of flour? 

These flourless peanut butter cookies are rich, perfectly sweet, and a great, decadent texture without any flour at all. There are only five common pantry ingredients!

They're super quick and easy to mix up!

Enjoy!

Read More...

Recipe Roundup: My Summer Breakfast To-Try List

Tweet

Pin It

Breakfast foods are my favorite kind of foods. Seriously, I eat breakfast foods for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. All day long.

But other people eat breakfast for breakfast! And, on the weekends at least, sometimes friends have the time to come join you for breakfast/brunch!

How getting to make breakfast for people makes me feel!

Here is a roundup of some recipes that I can't wait to test out on weekend breakfast/brunch guests.

Read More...